Pussy Riot reveals the fault line

Apr 20, 2012

Konstantin von Eggert

Drawing by Niyaz Karim

The punk provocateurs put the country’s contradictions in clear relief. But so far, there are only losers.

They are designated “prisoners of
conscience” by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and their Twitter
account is one of the trendiest among Russian followers. Finally, Pussy Riot’s
dramatic saga became a symbol of one of the many divides that cleave Russian
society.

In late February, masked members of
the self-proclaimed all-women “feminist punk-rock band,” which goes by the name
of Pussy Riot, burst into Christ the Savior cathedral, its national church, and
performed what they called a “punk prayer,” a chant entitled “Holy Virgin,
Chase Putin Away!”

Related:

This was the group’s best-publicized
show, following previous impromptu performances on Red Square and from the roof
of a prison. Obscene lyrics and radical causes are Pussy Riot’s trademark.
Those few minutes in the cathedral ignited fierce debate throughout Russia and
propelled the obscure radical art activists to international fame. Or
notoriety, depending on how one looks at their act.

Initially it wasn’t Putin but
members of the group that were chased away by the security guards. The incident
had all the signs of being a one-day sensation. That’s until the police
detained three alleged members of Pussy Riot a few days later on charges of
hooliganism. If convicted, the punk rockers could face a prison term of up to
seven years. Heated debates about the fate of the young women, Anastasia
Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich (the first two are
mothers of young children) has revealed tensions that once simmered under the
surface: Christian believers versus secularists, democrats versus Putin
supporters, reformist Christians versus traditionalists – Russia’s many
ideological rifts are on display here.

There are very few Russians that
think what Pussy Riot did was appropriate or even particularly clever. But the
severity of the punishment has made even many Orthodox believers aghast.
“Robbers and violent criminals sometimes get less, so why should a totally
peaceful if provocative action carry such dire consequences?” – this question
is being asked over and over again, in blogs, TV and radio talk shows and café
conversations.

The main loser in this situation is
the Russian Orthodox Church and its hierarchy. It is considered insufficiently
resolute by the conservative laity, which wants maximum punishment for
blasphemy to be meted out to Pussy Riot. And it is seen as callous, unmerciful
and too reliant on the powers of the state by more tolerant, younger believers,
mostly big city dwellers. More broadly speaking, the Pussy Riot story, no
matter what its outcome, marks a watershed in society’s attitude to the church.

For twenty years after the collapse
of the Soviet Union, it was largely exempt from the criticism leveled at other
institutions. Perceived as the victim of communist persecution, the church
enjoyed a degree of public goodwill that it may not enjoy for much longer. Ever
since the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill allied
himself with Vladimir Putin, making his support quite transparent during the
March presidential elections, the idea that the church is politically neutral holds
no water with Russians.

Opposition activists who rallied in
support of Pussy Riot and portrayed their action as an innocent prank also
lost. Instead of mitigating Orthodox fears that the democratic movement is
hostile to religion and religious people, they have strengthened this
stereotype. This doesn’t look like a good political canvassing tactic. They
handed the authorities a great chance to portray them as liberal dogmatists,
divorced from Russian reality and oblivious to the country’s spiritual
foundations.

The authorities are so far the only winners in this situation. In the
aftermath of the national electoral season, which brought so much discomfort to
Vladimir Putin and Russia’s ruling class, the public rage has been redirected
towards the Orthodox Church and the patriarch personally. But the crisis is far
from over. If Pussy Riot members continue to spend time in pre-trial detention
(which in Russia is not different from being in a regular jail) more and more
questions will be directed towards the Kremlin. The patriarchate’s officials
hint (on conditions of total anonymity) that the decision to jail the punk
rockers emanated not from them but from the authorities. They promise to
publicly demand clemency once the trial begins. A few minutes of what was conceived
as a performance turned into one of those turning moments that made Russia’s
stark contradictions stand out in sharp relief, there for everyone to see.

Konstantin
von Eggert is a commentator and host for Kommersant FM, Russia’s first
24-hour news radio station. He was a diplomatic correspondent for Russian daily
Izvestia and later served as the editor-in-chief of the BBC Russian Service Moscow Bureau.